cxx 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
respect, to all authors extant. Among his figures most wortliy of notice, I 
would particularize the Shore Lark, Brown Creeper, House and Winter 
"Wrens, Mocking-Bird, Cardinal Grosbeak, Cow Buntings, Mottled Owl, Mea- 
dow Lark, Barn Swallows, Snipe and Partridge, Rail and Woodcock, and the 
Euifed Grouse. 
The introduction of appropriate scenery, into a work of this kind, can have 
HO good eflfect, unless it be made to harmonize, both as to design and execu- 
tion, with the leading subjects; hence Wilson's landscapes, in the eye of taste, 
must always be viewed as a blemish, as he was not skilful in this branch of 
the art of delineation ; and, even if he had been dexterous, he was not author- 
ized to increase the expenditures of a work, which, long before its termination, 
its publisher discovered to be inconveniently burdensome. 
The principal objections which T have heard urged against the Ornithology, 
relate to the coloring ; but as the difficulties to which its author was subjected, 
on this score, have been already detailed, I will merely observe, that he found 
them too great to be surmounted. Hence a generous critic will not impute to 
him as a fault, what, in truth, ought to be viewed in the light of a misfortune. 
In his specific definitions he is loose and unsystematic. He does not appear 
to have been convinced of the necessity of precision on this head; his essential 
and natural characters are not discriminated; and, in some instances, he con- 
founds generic and specific characters, which the laws of methodical science 
do not authorize. 
There is a peculiarity in his orthography, which it is proper that_I should 
take notice of, for the purpose of explaining his motive for an anomaly, at once 
inelegant and injudicious. 1 have his own authority for stating, that he 
adopted this mode of spelling, at the particular instance of the late Joel Bar- 
low, who vainly hoped to give currency, in his heavy Epic, to an innovation, 
which greater names than his own had been unable to effect. 
" Some ingenious men," says Johnson, " have endeavored to deserve well 
of their country by writing honor and Iaho7' for honour and lalour, red for read 
in the preter-tense, sais for sai/s, repete for repeat^ explane for explain, or 
declamc for declaim. Of these it may be said, that as they have done no 
good, they have done little harm ; both because they have innovated little, 
and because few have followed them." 
The recommendation of the learned lexicographer, above cited, ought to be 
laid to heart by all those wdiose " vanity seeks praise by petty reformation." 
" I hope I may be allowed," says he, " to recommend to those, whose thoughts 
have been p)erhaps employed too anxiously on verbal singularities, not to dis- 
turb upon narrow views, or for minute propriety, the orthography of their 
fathers. There is in constancy and ability a general and lasting advantage, 
which will always overbalance the slow improvements of gradual correction." 
As it must be obvious that, without books, it would be impossible to avoid 
error in synonymes and nomenclature, so we find that our author, in these 
respects, has rendered himself obnoxious to reproach. 
That he was not ambitious of the honor of forming new genera, appears 
from the circumstance, that, although he found the system of Latham needed 
reformation, yet he ventured to propose but one genus, the Curvirostra, the 
